Over declaration of Cebu ASF outbreak: Capitol sues BAI officials

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu provincial government is set to file today administrative and criminal cases before the Office of the Ombudsman against the officials of Bureau of Animal Industry over the indiscriminate culling of pigs in Cebu.

Provincial Legal Office chief Atty. Donato Villa Jr., in a press conference yesterday together with Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia, accused BAI of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act or Republic Act 3019.

He said that they went to Carcar City to get affidavits of backyard hog raisers whose hogs were culled, which according to Villa, was very disheartening.

“We believed that the actions of BAI were in violation of Republic Act 3019 particularly Section 3 subsection E,” Villa said.

Section 3 states: Corrupt practices of public officers. In addition to acts or omissions of public officers already penalized by existing law, the following shall constitute corrupt practices of any public officer and are hereby declared to be unlawful:

“Subsection (e). Causing any undue injury to any party, including the Government, or giving any private party any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of his official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence. This provision shall apply to officers and employees of offices or government corporations charged with the grant of licenses or permits or other concessions.”

“Sweeping statement which as though all of Cebu is already affected with ASF and we know for a fact that after those statements, people no longer but hog meat and the price of fish rocketed. This is going to affect everybody economically. Naturally, it is the government who’s going to remedy this and this in effect an act which cause injury to the government, particularly the provincial government,” said Villa, explaining on why BAI’s statement that Cebu has an ASF outbreak caused injury to the latter.

Villa said that due to the declaration, pigs from Cebu were not accepted anywhere else. This was a stark contrast to the situation in the last four years when “everybody was going to Cebu to buy pigs.”

“And now because of these sweeping allegations that there is an ASF outbreak, nobody is going to buy and naturally our economy is going to be affected and there is a possible shortage and this is going to cause BAI to again recommend for importation and which possibly benefit those importers that they are going to permit to import. So this particular section is very much applicable against them and we  are going to file an administrative and criminal case based on this particular section of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act,” Villa added.

Garcia, for her part, said that with BAI declaring Cebu as ASF-infected and if she had given in to the latter’s culling policy, then all of Cebu’s pigs would have been killed by BAI.

That, she said, would have resulted in a justification of an additional importation of pork even though this would mean an eventual death of our own local hog industry in the country.

“No matter because there are big commissions that can be gained from these importation permits. The greed of some people will cause untold misery to so many Filipinos who are just trying to eke out a living from raising hogs or even our commercial farms that employ so many too, that improve our economy and are able to bring down the price of pork,” the governor said, adding, “they are just playing people’s lives and livelihood and I will not allow that here in Cebu.”

The governor also reiterated the Department of Health’s public advisory stating that the ASF is not transmittable to humans and that hogs affected by ASF are still safe for consumption so long as properly cooked, hence, the more there is no reason to kill healthy pigs.

“It’s time for government to look at what was happening for the last four years on the policy of killing pigs that has effectively reduce our hog population while BAI continue to happily approve importation permits for pork. Where lies our nationalism here? Whom shall we protect, the local hog industry or the interest of big importers?” the governor said.

The governor added that although there is no law yet on economic sabotage passed by Congress, they will point out that the statement of BAI has caused negative repercussion on Cebu’s hog industry causing economic dislocation for a lot.

“Now that we are trying to recover from the restrictions of COVID, now that we trying to recover after Typhoon Odette and ravaged by Typhoon Odette, the Cebuanos stood up and after all the trials that we went through, and our pork industry continued to thrive, then suddenly they sabotaged it by such statements claiming test results under dubious circumstances and certainly questionable methodologies. But we will not allow you, Bureau of Animal Industry, to sabotage the hog industry of Cebu and to sabotage the economy of Cebu,” the governor further said. — /JMD (FREEMAN)